Business Practice Revision
BPR
BPR016
Number
Business Practice
Section(s) Requiring
Revision (include Section
BPR
Title
Transmission Owner Selection Process
New Section
No., Title, and Protocol Version)
Impact Analysis
Required
No
(Yes or No)
MMU Report Required
(Yes or No)
Requested Resolution
(Normal or Urgent)
Revision Description
No
Normal
New BP to incorporate the Selection Process paper developed by
the TO Selection Task Force and approved by the MOPC. The
purpose of this business practices is to define the process to be
utilized by SPP only in the event the Designated Transmission
Owner (DTO) is unable or unwilling to arrange for the construction of
a project.
Reason for Revision
Tariff Implications or
Changes (Yes or No; If
yes include a summary No
of impact and/or
specific changes)
Criteria Implications or
Changes (Yes or No; If
yes include a summary No
of impact and/or
specific changes)
Credit Implications
(Yes or No, and
summary of impact)
Name
E-mail Address
Company
Company Address
No
Sponsor
Richard Ross on behalf of the BPWG
rross@aep.com
AEPSC
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Phone Number
Fax Number
918.599.2966
Proposed Business Practice Language Revision
1.16 TO Selection When A DTO Rejects an NTC
(return to TOC)
SPP sends a Notification to Construct (NTC) to the Designated Transmission Owner
(DTO) for projects to be built pursuant to Attachment O, Section VI of the SPP Tariff.
The purpose of this business practice is to define the process to be utilized by SPP in the
event that DTO is unable or unwilling to arrange for the construction of a project
identified pursuant to the SPP planning procedures. This overall selection process is
depicted in the diagram found in Appendix 1.
Business Practice
If the DTO for a NTC either: 1) informs SPP that it does not want to be a DTO and does
not arrange for another entity to assume the NTC in its place, 2) does not respond to the
receipt of the NTC within the defined 90 day period and in the manner required by
Attachment O, or 3) cannot reach an agreement on a modified NTC with SPP within the
90 day period, then SPP shall solicit a new Transmission Owner to build, own, operate
and maintain the project pursuant to the following process:
(1)
Staff will notify the Chairman of the Board of Directors (BOD) and the
Chairman of the Oversight Committee.
(2)
Within 15 days, the Oversight Committee (OC), with recommendations from
SPP Staff, will form a Selection Committee (SC), consisting of a group of SPP
Staff to oversee the selection process and to make a recommendation to the
Oversight Committee in accordance with the process described herein. The
Chair of the SC shall be an SPP employee at the Director level or higher. The
SPP Staff members of the SC shall include at least one employee from each of
the following functions, not to exceed nine members.

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(3)
Engineering
Regulatory
Operations
Finance
During the implementation of this Business Practice, the SC may, in its sole
discretion, designate and utilize Stakeholder Experts in order to provide input
and expert opinions to the SC. The designated Stakeholder Experts shall be
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Business Practice Revision
selected for their expertise to supplement the knowledge and expertise of the
SC.
For a Stakeholder Expert to qualify to participate with the SC, the Stakeholder
Expert must not be an employee or consultant for any of the entities or their
affiliates vying to construct the project. If, after a Stakeholder Expert is selected
and agrees to participate, the company that the Stakeholder Expert represents in
the SPP does initiate efforts to seek to construct the project, the Stakeholder
Expert shall immediately notify the SC and shall be removed as a Stakeholder
Expert. Each Stakeholder Expert must sign the SPP confidentiality agreement
prior to participating in the selection process. (Staff to add reference to location
of the document)
Stakeholders Experts shall be the primary source from which the SC shall
obtain expertise which it deems to be beyond its capability. The SC may also
utilize such consultants as it determines are necessary to provide specific
expertise. The SC may on occasion query a Committee or Working Group
regarding a matter it deems necessary to obtain such Committee’s or Working
Group’s input. In the event the SC determines that it must query a Committee
or Working Group, the query shall be narrowly designed in order to maintain
the integrity of the evaluation process.
(4)
Within 15 days of its formation, the SC’s shall issue a Request for Information
(“RFI”). The purpose of the RFI is to generate a list of those entities interested
in becoming the DTO for the NTC and which meet the list of minimum
requirements given in Attachment O. The RFI will be developed by the SC
based upon the original NTC issued by SPP and shall contain
a. The overall parameters of the project;
b. the original NTC; and
c. any additional information as specified in Appendix 3.
The RFI will be distributed to the identified contacts for each Transmission
Owner in SPP, each SPP Member, posted on the SPP website and OASIS and
distributed to anyone who has expressed an interest in becoming a Transmission
Owner in the SPP.
Those entities wishing to participate in the selection process must respond back
to the SC within 30 days of the posting of the RFI with the required information
contained in Appendix 3. . The SC will review the responses for completeness
and reject any response that is incomplete or does not meet the qualifications.
The SC shall notify a responding entity if its response is rejected for being
incomplete. If time allows, the responding entity may resend a corrected or
modified response back to the SC for consideration. Entities whose response is
determined to be complete will be considered a Qualified Entity (“QE”). Any
entity that fails to respond to the RFI or whose response is rejected will not be
considered further in this selection process.
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(5)
If no response to the RFI is received, then the SC will inform the OC and the
BOD of the lack of interest and the obligation to construct shall remain with the
DTO.
(6)
Within 45 days after the RFI has been posted, the SC will develop and issue an
RFP containing the information detailed in Appendix 3. The RFP will only be
issued to those entities that have responded to the RFI and have met the
qualifications of the RFI.
(7)
Each Qualified Entity (“QE”) shall respond to the RFP within 60 days from the
date the RFP is sent to the QE (“Response Window”). A QE may request an
extension of time to the Response Window; however, the Response Window
shall not be longer than 75 days from the date the RFP was sent to the QE. The
SC may grant such an extension of time based on good cause provided by the
QE. Good cause for an extension to the length of the Response Window may
include, but not be limited to: documented proof that the RFP was not received
in a timely manner by the QE, holidays, delay of information from SPP, and/or
a delay in information from third parties required for the QE to complete its
response to the RFP.
(8)
If no response to the RFP is received, then the SC will inform the OC and the
BOD of the lack of interest; and the obligation to construct shall remain with the
DTO.
(9)
The SC will immediately review each response to the RFP it receives for
completeness. The SC will promptly return any response to the QE that is
incomplete; however, the QE may resubmit a corrected or modified response if
the resubmittal is made within the Response Window. Any QE that fails to
respond to the RFP within the Response Window will be deemed to have
waived its right to respond to the RFP.
(10) Upon the receipt of the last QE response, or upon the closing of the Response
Window, whichever is first to occur, the SC will begin its review of the
information supplied by each QE responding to the RFP. The SC shall review
all the responses to the RFP and make its recommendation to the OC based
upon the selection process outlined in Appendix 4 within 30 days of the
initiation of its review. During the review period the SC may ask additional
questions of a responding QE and/or have each responding QE give a face-toface presentation. The SC may take up to an additional 30 days to complete its
review if either the number of responding QEs or the complexity of the analysis
requires additional time. The SC must notify the OC of the extension and the
reason for the extension prior to the end of the original 30 day review period.
The recommendation shall rank each QE as prescribed by Appendix 4 in a nondiscriminatory manner based upon the information supplied, or obtained,
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through the review period. The SC will compile an internal report detailing the
process, participants, data and results of its deliberation. A public report will
also be published by the SC; however, the public report shall not contain any
confidential information obtained by the SC during the selection process. The
public report shall be made available to all SPP stakeholders prior to the final
selection of the BOD.
(11) The OC shall review the SC recommendation, results and explanations and
submit those results, along with its recommendations to the SPP BOD. The SPP
BOD shall select a QE for the project (Selected Transmission Owner or “STO”)
and a backup QE based upon the input it receives from the OC.
(12) Upon the selection of the STO by the BOD, SPP shall notify the STO that it has
been selected to become the new DTO for the project. The STO shall sign any
necessary agreement(s) obligating it as the DTO to assume all of the rights and
responsibilities related to the project and the NTC pursuant to the SPP
Membership Agreement and the SPP OATT.
(13) If the STO does not respond within 15 days of notification, is no longer willing
to become the DTO, or is unwilling to sign the necessary agreement(s), the STO
shall be deemed to have waived its right to become the DTO and SPP shall
notify the BOD, OC and the SC of the results. SPP shall then contact the
backup QE and offer the project to it on the same terms the project was offered
to the STO.
(14) If the backup QE also fails to sign the necessary agreement(s) to become the
DTO within 15 days of notification, SPP shall notify the BOD, OC and the SC
of the results. The SC and OC shall review the remaining applications and
submit another recommendation to the BOD. If no other QE can be found to
construct the project, then the original Transmission Owner shall remain the
DTO and shall be required to begin following the requirements of the NTC1.
1
SPP Open Access Transmission Tariff, Attachment O, Section VI (6), page 300L.
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Business Practice XX.YY Appendix 1 – Transmission Owner Selection
Process Flowchart
Transmission Owner Selection Process
Members of the SC are selected by
the Oversight Committee (1 week)
SC develops an RFI to determine a list of
interested entities (15 days)
SC develops the RFP
(45 days)
Parties respond to RFI
(30 days)
Incomplete Response
SC Reviews responses to the RFI (15
days)
SC issues the RFP to interested entities
SC receives and reviews
responses to RFP
(60 days)
Incomplete
Response
SC Evaluates RFPs (30 days)
SC makes Recommendation to
Oversight committee
No QEObligation to
Construct
remains with
DTO
Oversight Committee makes
recommendation to SPP BOD
BOD Selects STO
Selected QE
executes
agreements to
become the
DTO
SPP Contacts STO
Selected QE does not sign
agreements
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Business Practice X.X Appendix 2
Selection Committee Confidentiality Agreement
Between
The Southwest Power Pool, Inc.
and
(Recipient)
Please refer to the appropriate SPP confidentiality (or NDA) agreement. (Staff to insert
link to document here)
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Business Practice XX.YY Appendix 3 – RFI/RFP Procedures
PURPOSE
To identify the minimum Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements for selecting an entity
to construct a transmission project in which the Designated Transmission Owner (DTO)
has refused.
To facilitate the RFP process, it would be beneficial to first issue a Request for
Information (RFI) for the specific project.
RFI REQUIREMENTS
General
 Introduction/Background
 OATT / Regulatory context
 Purpose of RFI / statement of objective (tied to NTC and refusal of DTO to
construct)
 Confidentiality statement (as applicable)
 RFI Timeline
 Notice of Intent to Bid (a standardized form) issued with the RFI
Consistent with Attachment O Section VI, paragraph 6, the RFI must state that the entity
responding to the RFP must demonstrate the following to be considered a viable bidder:



That the entity has obtained all state and regulatory authority to construct, own
and operate transmission facilities within the state(s) where the project is located
That the entity meets the creditworthiness requirements of the Transmission
provider (SPP)
That the entity has signed or is capable and wiling to sign the SPP Membership
Agreement as a Transmission Owner upon the selection of its proposal to
construct and own the project
RFP REQUIREMENTS
1.
General
 Introduction/Background
 OATT / Regulatory context
 Purpose of RFP / statement of objective (tied to NTC and refusal of DTO to
construct)
 Confidentiality statement (as applicable, covering the confidentiality of the bids
and what those evaluating the bids have agreed to in terms of a confidentiality
statement)
 Dispute resolution process
2.
Bid Content Requirements and Submission Procedures
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



Demonstration that the entity has signed or is capable and willing to sign the SPP
Membership Agreement as a Transmission Owner upon the selection of its
proposal to construct and own the project
Demonstration that the entity has obtained all state and regulatory authority to
construct, own and operate transmission facilities within the state(s) where the
project is located
Timetable for RFP bids
o RFI issued
o Notice of intent to bid
o RFP issued
o Pre-bid Q and A deadline
o Pre-bid conference (if appropriate)
o Bid due dates
o Information policy
o Clarification of proposals
o Bid selection date
RFP primary contact
Identification of major partners, contractors, and associated contracts
Requirements to comply with Good Utility Practice, SPP criteria, industry
standards, applicable Transmission Owner construction /technical criteria, and
applicable local, state, federal requirements
Duration of Offer
Conditions of Bid
Managerial qualifications
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Financial
Demonstration of financing
Demonstration of meeting SPP creditworthiness requirements
Demonstration of articles of incorporation
Cost estimates
Statement of cost recovery
Demonstration of Revenue Requirement calculations
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3.
4.
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Engineering and Construction
Statement of whom will engineer/design the project
Minimum technical requirements / specifications
o Technical requirements for conductors, terminations, structures, etc (as
applicable and tied to the NTC)
Demonstration of applicable qualifications and certifications to construct in the
state in which construction is required
Anticipated timeline of project
o Schedule estimates
o Progress milestones
o Progress reports
Demonstration of past transmission construction experience
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
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5.
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6.
7.
8.
Equipment acquisition process
o Construction equipment
o Transmission line material
Description of applicable ROW / real estate acquisition process
Description of routing process
Description of permitting processes
o Eminent domain status
o Process for obtaining easements
o Surveying responsibility
Description of construction clearance processes. (Permission from the local
operations group to cross other lines, turn off reclosers; have nearby lines
reenergized while working on or near them, etc.
Who will have the responsibility to inspect the construction?
Operations and Maintenance
Demonstration of operations
o Statement of which entity will be operating and maintaining the line
Demonstration of compliance with SPP ERO, NERC requirements
Description of relevant control center operations
Storm / outage response plan
Maintenance Plan
o Staffing
o Equipment
o Crew training
Record of past maintenance performance


Information Exchange
Identification of data required to be provided to the SPP in accordance with
NERC reliability standards (for power flow, short-circuit, stability analysis etc.)
Data of design of the facilities for the Transmission Provider
CEII requirements

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
Safety program/Current/past statistics
Internal safety program
Contractor safety program
Safety performance record
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Evaluation Procedure (should be listed in RFP)
Statement of bid evaluation methodology
o For acceptable bids
o For bid selection
o Use of an independent evaluator (if applicable)
Bid Evaluation fees (if applicable)
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9.
Attachments - under the premise that standardized forms from each bidder will
aid in the evaluation of each bid by SPP.
Possible Standardized Forms
o Notice of Intent to Bid (part of the RFI)
o Bid certification
o Bid Cover Sheet
o Pricing
o Regulatory Milestones
o Construction Milestones
o Representation Authorization
o Bid exceptions
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Business Practice XX.YY Appendix 4 – Selection Criteria
PURPOSE
To identify the process used in the rating and selection of the Selected Transmission
Owner.
GENERAL
The Selection Committee will use “Reasonable Professional” standard in evaluation of
proposals from the various respondents.
Minimum requirements (regulatory authority, credit worthiness, and TO membership)
must be met in order to included in this process.
The Selection Committee will score respondents on the items described below. Highest
score may not always be selected. Low scores in individual categories may eliminate
respondents from consideration
PROCESS
Each Selection Committee member will score respondents’ proposals by category from
zero to the allowed number of points for that category. Points are totaled for all
respondents and the results are used in guiding the committee to the ultimate selection.
There are 100 possible points for each respondent RFP.
CATEGORIES
 Project Expertise-20 points
o Engineering
o Permitting
o Environmental
o ROW Acquisition
o Procurement
o Project Management (including scope, schedule management)
o Construction
o Commissioning
o Technology content
 Safety program/Current/Past statistics-15 points
o Internal safety program
o Contractor safety program
o Safety performance record (program execution)
o RFP conformance
 Cost to customer- What will the (long term) final impact be on the customer’s
bill?-20 points
o Estimated total cost of Project
o Financing costs
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


o FERC Incentives
o Revenue Requirements
o Lifetime cost of the project to customers
Reliability/Quality/General Design-15 points
o Type of Construction (wood, steel, design loading, etc.)
o Estimated total owning costs
o Losses (design efficiency)
o Estimated life of construction
Operations-15 points
o Control Center operations (staffing etc.)
o NERC compliance –process/history
o Storm/Outage response plan
o Past reliability performance
Maintenance-15 points
o Staffing
o Maintenance plans
o Equipment
o Crew training
o Maintenance performance/expertise
o NERC compliance-process/history
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